Jack Thompson sues over upcoming “Bully” title

As far as infamous-sounding video games go, the upcoming Rockstar title "Bully" is near the top of the list. Its subject matter—at least as originally reported—is controversial, as the player reportedly controls a schoolyard bully intent on terrorizing students. (Rockstar recently released a trailer for the title, and it looks like the game play is going to be much different than many people thought; more on that later.)

As might be expected, Bully's premise has caught the attention of Jack Thompson, best known for his crusade against video game violence. In an unusual move, he demanded that Rockstar Games provide him with a prerelease copy of the game for analysis. Thompson's letter threatened the developers with a lawsuit if they did not fork over a copy of the game for him and others to analyze it "to determine whether it still poses a threat of copycat violence in our schools."

When contacted by Ars Technica for comment, Thompson told us that Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive ignored the letters entirely. As a result, he has filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Using Florida's nuisance law (Florida Statute 823.01) as the suit's basis, Thompson is seeking access to the game prior to its release to assess it "prior to its release to the public." If Thompson does get a copy of the game and finds that it "confirms educators' and others' worst fears" as he expects, he plans to seek an injunction against its release.

In the complaint (PDF), Thompson makes a number of startling claims, including "a new wave of successfully orchestrated harassment by Take-Two" directed against him. He cites death and sexual abuse threats received early Tuesday morning from a caller in Oregon as evidence of Take-Two's alleged campaign against him.

We asked Thompson about the recently released Bully trailer, which paints an entirely different picture of game play than many expected. He called it "sanitization," saying that "this is all part of a propaganda effort worthy of Joseph Goebbels, or Doug Lowenstein."

Thompson characterizes screenshots from the game as displaying the title's true nature, despite Take-Two's comments to the contrary. From the complaint:

28. The CEO of Take-Two, Paul Eibeler, has even conducted a teleconference in which he has stated that Bully is not a Columbine simulator," and that the game is, in effect, harmless. In other words, Mr. Eibeler is saying to the world: "Are you going to believe us, or are you going to believe your lying eyes which have seen the violent screenshots of the game?"

It is hard to conceive the court giving Thompson an advance look at the game, even if he says he is acting on behalf of the State of Florida in filing the suit. Instead, we'll have to rely on the ESRB to look through the game footage and assign a rating based on what it sees. Rockstar has extra incentive to play it by the book with Bully, given its history with GTA: San Andreas along with the specter of a $1 million fine from the ESRB if it fails to disclose crucial elements of the game.